On any given syllabus on campus, you’re likely to find two things below the teacher’s name: office hours and the contact information for your teaching assistant.
Of the 50 students around campus who spoke to me about TAs, only half said they had one, and a shamefully high number of those admitted that they had never considered using them for help.
“I’ve had some helpful ones, while some knew nothing” anthropology sophomore Cameron Warren said. “I had a hot TA, and that was fun.”
Some students were more hostile.
“I hated one TA I had because he made a f—ed up test,” public relations sophomore Bria Turner said.
Teaching assistants are usually graduate students with assistantship positions, and their tasks can be anything from answering e-mails to teaching lessons and grading exams.
But many students wonder if TAs should be given power in the classroom, which could potentially affect a student’s grade, especially when that person isn’t the teacher.
From the mixed responses I received about them, teaching
assistants can be helpful, confusing and at times subjective.
“There is a lack of communication between teacher and TA. I don’t see enough consistency with grading,” chemical engineering sophomore Tamara Trotter said.
Because TAs don’t hold the title of professor for the course, their authority and knowledge is usually not taken seriously.
Yet if your qualified professor feels he or she is are adequate, you should, too.
“Although proven helpful, sometimes I can’t understand them,” Warren explained.
For some reason, students fail to comprehend that TAs are students, too. They have lives outside of assisting courses they aren’t enrolled in. This means they aren’t always waiting behind a computer to respond to your questions about the homework that is due in 45 minutes.
“I have coursework, I have exams and I have to write papers,” accounting graduate teaching assistant Robert Hogan said.
Hogan said the main task of a TA is to help students more easily understand the course material. They usually are able to explain concepts in a different way and more than likely host review or tutoring sessions weekly.
“I’m more comfortable with the TA. They’re more relatable than professors,” sports administration sophomore Carter Sapp said.
Students don’t use TAs nearly as often as they could, Hogan said. I agree with his explanation that students have the responsibility to make the effort to get assistance.
“I am incredibly underutilized for a TA that is available five hours a week and about 60 each semester,” Hogan said.
They can’t ensure that you’ll get an A in the class just from visiting their hours, but using the free resources from someone who is more than qualified in the material sounds like a step in the right direction.
“Our TAs do everything from grading to setting up lab experiments. They’re laid back and expect us to do our jobs,” chemistry senior Kevin Willis said.
Business senior Joe Logan says it best: “TAs are useful if used correctly. They are not always effective or necessary for every class because there are instances where the professor should be making the final decision.”
At the end of the day, we may not like their position or how they teach, but they have proven helpful with explaining concepts in a different way than teachers. So seek them out as soon as your grades start crying for it, but remember the professor possesses the general authority in the class.
Marie-Therese Yokum is a 19-year-old mass communication and finance sophomore from Lafayette. Follow her on Twitter
@TDR_myokum.
 
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Contact Marie-Therese Yokum at [email protected]